Mitglieder des Europäischen Parlaments haben große Bedenken bezüglich Postmarktliberalisierung

Cornelia Berger  7 April 2011 10:52:46

Die schriftliche Erklärung zeigte, dass dieses Thema Abgeordnete aus ganz Europa und von allen politischen Fraktionen  beunruhigt

24. März 2011 war der Stichtag und die letzte Möglichkeit für Abgeordente des Europäischen Parlaments die schriftliche Erklärung 94/2010 zur „Vermeidung negativer Auswirkungen der Umsetzung der Richtlinie 2008/6/EG zur Änderung der Richtlinie 97/67/EG im Hinblick auf die Vollendung des Binnenmarktes der Postdienste der Gemeinschaft” zu unterschreiben. Diese schriftliche Erklärung wurde von Abgeordenten aus den 5 größten Fraktionen im Europäischen Parlament initiiert: Georges Bach (EVP), Dennis de Jong (GUE/NGL), Isabelle Durant (Die Grünen), Said El Kahdouri (S&D) and Maria Harkin (ALDE).

Die Erklärung forderte eine umgehende Sozialverträglichkeitsprüfung über die negativen Auswirkungen der Liberalisierung durch die Kommission. Sie fordert ebenfalls die Kommission dazu auf, keinerlei Vertragsverletzungsverfahren gegen Mitgliedsstaaten einzuleiten, die nicht sofort die Richtlinie implementiert haben. Auf diese Weise sollen die Mitgliedsstaaten mehr Zeit haben, die Folgen zu erforschen und sich auf diese vorzubereiten. Mitgliedsstaaten sollen alle notwendigen Maßnahmen ergreifen, um gleiche Wettbewerbsbedingungen ohne Sozialdumping zu schaffen und nachhaltige, verlässliche Postdienstleistungen auch zukünftig zu garantieren.

165 Mitglieder des Europäischen Parlaments aus ganz Europa und von allen politischen Fraktionen haben schlussendlich die schriftliche Erklärung unterschrieben und damit ihre Bedenken hinsichtlich der Postmarktliberalisierung in Europa zum Ausdruck gebracht. "Natürlich war es unser Ziel, Unterschriften von mindestens 50% aller Abgeordneten zu bekommen", sagte Cornelia Berger, politische Sekretärin von UNI Europa Post&Logistik, "aber nichts desto trotz konnten wir damit zeigen, dass viele Abgeordnete die Umsetzung der Postmarktliberalisierung als sehr problematisch einschätzen und sie äußerten damit auch den Bedarf einer erneuten Nachprüfung einiger Hauptpunkte. Jetzt liegt es an uns dieses Thema weiter voran zu treiben und nochmals an die Europäische Kommission zu richten."

UNI Europa Post&Logistik wird den Kampf gegen die negativen Auswirkungen der Postmarktliberalisierung in Europa gemeinsam mit den Abgeordenten zum Europäischen Parlament weiter führen. Es gibt bereits einen Strategieplan, der in kürze veröffentlich wird, mit neuen Ideen und Maßnahmen um die Jobs der Postbeschäftigten zu erhalten und qualitativ hochwertige Postdienstleistungen auch für zukünftige Generationen zu garantieren.

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¼ of the Members of European Parliament have major concern with postal liberalisation

Cornelia Berger  7 April 2011 10:11:45

The written declaration showed that this topic concerns MEPs across Europe and from all political groups

24th of March 2011 was the deadline of the Written Declaration 94/2010 on “preventing adverse effects of the implementation of Directive 2008/6/EC amending Directive 97/67/EC with regard to the full accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services”. This written declaration has been initiated by MEPs belonging to the 5 biggest groups in the European Parliament: Georges Bach (EPP), Dennis de Jong (GUE/NGL), Isabelle Durant (Greens), Said El Kahdouri (S&D) and Maria Harkin (ALDE).

The declaration demands a clear impact assessment of the negative consequences of postal liberalisation by the Commission. It also calls to refrain any infringement procedures by the Commission against Member States who do not immediately implement the Directive to give more time to investigate in the consequences and prepare on them. Member States should take all necessary measures to create an equal level playing field without social dumping and to guarantee sustainable and reliable postal services also in the future.

165 Members from the European Parliament signed the Written Declaration across Europe and from all political group and expressed like this their concerns regarding postal liberalisation in Europe. “Of course our aim was to achieve 50% plus one signatures of all MEPs”, said Cornelia Berger, policy officer from UNI Europa Post&Logistics, “but nevertheless we could prove that a lot of MEPs see the implementation of postal liberalisation in Europe as problematically and expressed the need of a review on some major points. It is up to us to follow up now this topic and address it once more to the European Commission.”

UNI Europa Post&Logistics is about to continue the fight against the negative consequences of postal liberalisation in Europe in conjunction with Members of the European Parliament. A strategic plan is about to be launched with several new ideas and measures to save the jobs of the postal workers in Europe and guarantee quality postal services also for future generations.

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UNI Europa Post&Logistics Lobby Day: a success

Cornelia Berger  7 April 2011 10:09:17

More than 30 persons from all over Europe followed the call of UNI Europa Post&Logistics to come to Brussels and address one day the European Parliament. It was a pleasure that especially a lot of young Trade Unionists were amongst the participants.

In several meetings and activities, members of the European Parliament get to know the personal stories and the overall negative consequences of the postal liberalisation in Europe. A lunch debate has been organised in cooperation with UNI Europa Post&Logistics and all participants agreed that corrections are necessary as this liberalisation didn’t “deliver” what the European Commission and economists have promised. Methods must be found to guarantee the financing of USO to get competition on quality and innovation and to get minimum standards for the employees.

In total UNI Europa Post&Logistics reached more than 30 MEPs from 12 different countries and the biggest political groups. The young Trade Unionist acted motivated and committed to convince the deputies signing the written declaration WD 94/2010 to save postal services in Europe. UNI Europa will follow up all the promises made at this day to sign the declaration. And at the end of the day there was the overall commitment to keep on fighting and be the voice of the 2,5 million postal workers in Europe.

More information about the day, you can find under: www.uni-europa.org

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Lunchdebate im Europäischen Parlament

Cornelia Berger  7 April 2011 10:05:18

Am 1. März 2011 fand im Europäischen Parlament in Brüssel die Lunchdebate über die Auswirkungen der Postmarktliberalisierung statt. 7 Abgeornete sowie VertreterInnen der Postgewerkschaften aus Deutschland und Österreich, VertreterInnen von UNI Europa und zahlreiche Gäste nahmen daran teil.

Gastgeber waren Georges Bach, Co-Initiator der schriftlichen Erklärung WD 94/2010 von der EVP und Hannes Swoboda stellvertrender Vorsitzender der S&D Fraktion. Andrea Koscis, stellvertretende Vorsitzende der deutschen Gewerkschaft verdi und Helmut Köstinger, Vorsitzender der Gewerkschaft der Post- und Fernmeldebediensteten in Österreich schilderten anschaulich die nationalen Auswirkungen der Postmarktliberalisierung.

Alle Anwesenden, darunter Eva Lichtenberger, die Grünen, Jörg Leichtfried, S&D und Evelyn Regner, S&D stimmten der Tatsache zu, dass die Liberalisierung des Postmarktes nicht das brachte, was die Europäische Kommission und neoliberale WirtschaftsexpertInnen anfangs versprochen hatten. Die negativen Auswirkungen müssen untersucht und Möglichkeiten gefunden werden, diese zu beseitigen. Es bedarf Korrekturen und weiterer Schritte um Sozialdumping zu verhindern und Mindestnormen für die Beschäftigten zu garantieren. Einfache KundInnen profitieren ebenfalls nicht von der Marktöffnung: Wettbewerb bedeute in den meisten Fällen die Reduzierung von Service und Netzwerk. Die Universaldienstverpflichtung ist das Herzstück der Postdienstleistungen, es muß alles getan werden, diese zu garantieren.

Es wichtig, die Diskussion auch in den europäischen Institutionen zu halten, unterstrich Cornelia Berger von UNI Europa Post&Logistik. Die Europäische Kommission lasse bereits jetzt erste Anzeichen dafür erkennen, dass die Universaldienstverpflichtung weiter reduziert und Wettbewerb im Postmarkt mittels Abbau von Schutzmaßnahmen und Mindestnormen geschaffen werden solle. Daher ist die Unterstützung und der Erfolg der schriftlichen Erklärung WD 94/2010 wichtig.

Einen ausführliche Artikel zur Lunchdebate finden Sie auf unserer Homepage: www.uni-europa.org

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Video: Women postal workers ask MEPs to "Save our Post!" on International Womens’ Day, March 8, 2011

UNI Global Union  11 March 2011 15:08:40

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Women postal workers ask MEP’s to sign to save Post

Neil Anderson  10 March 2011 10:14:24

Women postal workers handed out red roses to the Members of the European Parliament to mark International Women’s day and to ask MEP’s to sign the Written Declaration to save postal services. WD 94 is reaching a crucial stage in the campaign to gain enough MEP’s signatures to get it accepted in the Parliament. Veronica Fernandez, UNI Global Union’s Equality Officer, joined with postal workers to celebrate international Women’s day handing red roses to the MEP’s and asking them to support women postal workers by signing the Written Declaration to Save Europe’s Postal service.

Postal workers from Greece also travelled to Strasbourg to meet Greek MEP’s and take part in the activities organised by UNI. They joined in handing out many of the 400 roses to celebrate the day and to urge the MEP’s to save their fellow Greek postal workers, many of whom were facing an uncertain future in a Greek postal market seriously affected by the global recession and with the liberalisation, a postal service that is in danger of seeing cuts to service and losses of many, many jobs.

Cornelia Berger from UNI Europa Post & Logistics had set up a large number of meetings with members of the Parliament which were attended by Veronica Fernandez, Colin Medland representing UNI Youth and Neil Anderson Head of UNI Post & Logistics. Many of the MEP’s said they saw the dangers for postal workers and in particular women postal workers in a liberalisation that has not seen a proper impact assessment done, or any studies on the social impact on both workers and customers. Cornelia told women MEP’s that in the experience of UNI, women postal workers could expect job losses and many women having to accept part time and short time jobs without proper social protections.

UNI is continuing to ask MEP’s to sign the Declaration and to demand of the Commission that they immediately undertake a proper impact study on the social consequences and also to urgently set up the Postal Users Group promised by Commissioner Barnier back in September last year.

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UNI Europa Post & Logistics Lobby Day: a success

Cornelia Berger  2 March 2011 17:44:25

More than 30 trade unionists from all over Europe answered the call of UNI europa Post & Logistics to come to Brussels to the European Parliament and work for a day to meet and lobby to save the postal service. It was a pleasure that especially a lot of young Trade Unionists were amongst the participants.

In several meetings and activities, members of the European Parliament got to know the personal stories of postal workers and the overall negative consequences of the postal liberalisation in Europe for consumers. A lunch debate of MEP’s had been organised in cooperation with UNI europa Post & Logistics and all participants agreed that changes are necessary as this liberalisation hasn’t “delivered” what the European Commission and economists have promised. Methods must be found to guarantee the financing of USO to get competition based on quality and innovation and to get minimum standards for the employees.

The activities enabled UNI Europa Post & Logistics to reach more than 30 MEPs from 12 different countries and representative of the biggest political groups. The young Trade Unionists were motivated and committed in their efforts to convince the Deputies that they should sign the written declaration WD 94/2010 to save postal services in Europe. UNI europa will follow up all the promises to sign the declaration made by the Deputies during the day. And at the end of the day there was an overall commitment from the participants of the lobby day to keep on fighting and be the voice of the 2,5 million postal workers in Europe.

More information about the day, you can find under: www.uni-europa.org


 
 
 

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Lunch debate in the European Parliament

Cornelia Berger  2 March 2011 17:20:24

UNI europa Post & Logistics joined with 7 Members of the European Parliament as well as representatives of postal Trade Unions from Austria and Germany in a lunch debate about the consequences of the postal liberalisation. The debate which took place on 1 March 2011 was held at the European Parliament in Brussels and also included a big number of interested guests including young postal workers.

Georges Bach, one of the initiators of the written declaration WD 94/2010, EPP group and Hannes Swoboda, vice chair of the parliaments S&D political group hosted the meeting. Andrea Koscis, vice-president of the German Trade Union ver.di and Helmut Köstinger, president of the Postal and Telecommunication Workers Union in Austria gave lively accounts of the consequences of the postal liberalisation in their countries, which they described as detrimental to both quality of services and to the workers jobs.

All attendees, including the MEP’s Eva Lichtenberger from the Greens, Jörg Leichtfried from S&D and Evelyn Regner from S&D agreed that postal liberalisation didn’t “deliver” what the European Commission and economists have promised. They concluded that the negative consequences have to be researched and methods must be found to eliminate them. The implantation of the liberalisation needs corrections and further steps to avoid social dumping and to guarantee minimum standards for the employees. Also normal customers haven’t gained any advantages from the market opening. Competition means in most cases a reduction of services and networks. The universal service obligation is the core activity of the postal sector and there is still much to be done since liberalisation to ensure that a universal postal service is guaranteed.

Cornelia Berger, UNI europa Post & Logistics underlined the importance to keep the discussion going to find resolution of the problems within the European institutions. There is evidence that the European Commission is preparing arguments that are likely to reduce the universal services and create competition by the reduction of protection mechanisms and minimum standards. Therefore it is important to support the written declaration WD 94/2010.


 

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Postwomen and Postmen asked the members of the European Parliament to save their jobs.

Cornelia Berger  15 February 2011 19:11:41

In the plenary session from 14^th to 17^th of February 2011 in Strasbourg, post-persons from France, Germany and Portugal came to the European Parliament to ask the deputies to sign the written declaration WD94/2010. In personal talks, meetings and by distributing post cards in the corridors of the European Parliament, post persons in postal uniforms tried to convince MEPs from all countries and all political groups to safe postal services in Europe.

This written declaration should keep the discussion within the European institutions. The liberalisation will have enormous effects on the postal sector and the social consequences in already liberalised countries show that Trade Unions, governments and incumbent postal operators have to prepare themselves very carefully to safeguard minimum social standards and avoid social dumping in the sector. Therefore it is important that the European Commission supports the countries in this process and give countries more time to prepare.

With personal stories, the post persons tried to explain to MEPs their all-day work and the challenges they are faced in the future. As elected representatives of European citizens, it should be the duty of the members of the European Parliament to listen to the concerns of postal workers and support them wherever they can. To encourage the MEPs to support postal workers, these personal stories and explanation what is going on exactly in the postal sector is crucial for their support.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

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UNI Europa Post&Logistics ask MEPs: show your heart for postal services

Cornelia Berger  14 February 2011 20:47:55

At the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the 14^th of February, UNI Europa Post&Logistics started a Valentines’ action. The MEPs got some chocolate and a Valentine’s card asking them to be sweet and sign the written declaration WD 94/2010.

With this sweet Valentine’s greeting, UNI tries to convince the MEPs to sign the written declaration to safe postal services in Europe. More than 300 cards have been distributed today. This is the start of the actions planned for this plenary session.

60 MEPs already signed the declaration which is a good start compared to similar written declaration. Now it is on UNI Europa Post&Logistics, the postal Trade Union in the EU and the initiators within the European Parliament to make this declaration a success.

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